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Information about Hawaiian Goose

Hawaiian Goose

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Anseriformes
Family:Anatidae
Genus:Branta
Species:B. sandvicensis
Binomial name
Branta sandvicensis
(Vigors, 1833)


The Hawaiian Goose or Nēnē, Branta sandvicensis, is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It shares a recent common ancestor with Branta canadensis, the Canada Goose. The official bird of the State of Hawaiiʻi, the Nēnē is exclusively found in the wild of the islands of Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi. A larger, extinct and possibly flightless species, the Nēnē-nui (Branta hylobadistes) was present in prehistoric times on Maui; related, but hitherto undescribed forms also occurred on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu, and there was a gigantic, flightless relative on the island of Hawaiʻi.

The Nēnē gets its Hawaiian name from its soft call.

The species has a black head, buff cheeks and heavily furrowed neck. Bill, legs and feet are black. The young birds are as the male but duller brown and with less demarcation between the colors of the head and neck, and striping and barring effects are much reduced. Bill, legs and feet as for the adult.

The female Hawaiian Goose is similar to the male in coloring but slightly smaller.

Its strong toes have much reduced webbing, an adaptation to the lava flows on which it breeds. It mates on land unlike most other wildfowl.

This is the world's rarest goose. Once common, hunting and introduced predators such as mongooses, pigs, and cats reduced the population to 30 birds by 1952. However, this species breeds well in captivity, and has been successfully re-introduced so in 2004 it was estimated that there were 500 birds in the wild (and good numbers in wildfowl collections). However, there is some concern of inbreeding due to the small population of birds. The nature reserve WWT Slimbridge in England was instrumental in the successful breeding of Nēnē geese in captivity, under the direction of the leading conservationist Sir Peter Scott, during the 1950s, for later re-introduction into the wild in Hawaii. There are still Nene geese at Slimbridge today.





The distinctive neck pattern

A group of Nēnē; the bird on the right shows the characteristic foot

A sign in Hawai‘i warning of crossing Nēnē.

Two Nēnē at the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.


References

External Links

conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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vulnerable species is a species which is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. The following is a very small, non-representative fraction of the 8565 species listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Anseriformes
Wagler, 1831

Families
  • Anhimidae
  • Anseranatidae
  • Anatidae
  • †Dromornithidae
  • †Presbyornithidae
  • †Gastornidae(?)


The order Anseriformes
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Waterbird redirects here. See also shorebirds and seabirds.

Ducks, geese and swans

Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)


Scientific classification
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Branta
Scopoli, 1769

Species

see text.
Synonyms

Nesochen Salvadori, 1895

The black geese of the genus Branta are waterfowl belonging to the true geese and swans subfamily Anserinae.
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – October 26, 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician.

Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford. He served in the army during the Peninsular War from 1809 to 1811.
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1800s  1810s  1820s  - 1830s -  1840s  1850s  1860s
1830 1831 1832 - 1833 - 1834 1835 1836

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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Goose (plural geese, male gander(s)) is the English name for a considerable number of birds, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than geese, and ducks, which are smaller.
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endemic, in the context of bird endemism, refers to any species found only in a specific area. There is no upper size limit for the geographical area. It would not be incorrect to refer to all bird species as endemic to Earth; in practice, however, the largest areas for which the
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Hawaiian Islands, once known as the Sandwich Islands, form an archipelago of nineteen islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts trending northwest by southeast in the North Pacific Ocean between latitudes 19° N and 29° N.
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B. canadensis

Binomial name
Branta canadensis
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Canada Goose distribution, including native (dark tones) and introduced (light tones) populations

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State of Hawaii
Mokuʻāina o Hawaiʻi

Flag of Hawaii Seal of Hawaii
Nickname(s): The Aloha State

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Maui
The Valley Isle<nowiki />

Landsat satellite image of Maui

Geography

Location in the state of Hawaii <nowiki/>
Location
Area 727.
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Kauaʻi
The Garden Isle<nowiki />

August 1995 satellite photo

Geography

Location in the state of Hawaii <nowiki/>
Location
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Hawaiʻi
The Big Island<nowiki />

November 1985 satellite photo

Geography

Location in the state of Hawaii <nowiki/>
Location
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Oʻahu
The Gathering Isle<nowiki />

Satellite photo of Oʻahu

Geography
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Hawaiian}}} 
Writing system: Latin 
Official status
Official language of: Hawaiʻi (with English)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
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Herpestidae
Bonaparte, 1845

Subfamiles
Herpestinae

A mongoose (plural mongooses or mongeese[1]) is a member of the family Herpestidae, a family of small cat-like carnivores.
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Sus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

Sus barbatus
Sus bucculentus†
Sus cebifrons
Sus celebensis
Sus domestica
Sus falconeri†
Sus heureni

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F. s. catus

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms
Felis lybica invalid junior synonym
Felis catus invalid junior synonym[2]

The cat (
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WWT Slimbridge is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (a UK charity) at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, England. Slimbridge is halfway between Bristol and Gloucester on the estuary of the river Severn.
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Bronze 1936 Berlin Monotype class

Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC, FRS, FZS, (September 14, 1909 – August 29, 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter and sportsman.
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Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1985 after its transfer from the United States Coast Guard, and consists of 203 acres (0 km) of protected land.
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